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DISIHTERESTED  PUBLIC  SERVICE. 


a  iM    ADOKP®"^ 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


ALUMNI  AND  STUDENTS  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 
OF  LAW,  OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN, 

WEDNESDAY,  JUNE  24,  1891. 

BY 

HON.  THOMAS  F.   BAYARD,  LL.  D., 

OF    WILMINGTON,    DEL. 


»  ■>      ■>    1  » 


ANN  ARBOR,  MICH.: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 

1891. 


gKW 
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THE  COURIER  OFFICE,  PRINTERS. 


DISINTERESTED  PUBLIC  SERVICE, 


Not  infrequently  we  have  heard  and  still  hear  the  United  States  of 
America  alluded  to  as  the  "  Young  Republic  of  the  West,"  or  sometimes 
as  the  "Latest  Experiment  in  Government,"  and  its  short  national  life 
contrasted  with  the  older  governments  of  Christendom ;  and  yet,  dating 
the  birth  of  our  Government  from  the  year  in  which  its  Federal  Constitu- 
tion was  adopted  by  the  several  States  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  it 
was  launched  on  the  sea  of  political  existence,  one  hundred  and  two  years 
ago,  it  has  outlived  all  of  its  contemporaries.  Is  it  not  safe  to  say  that, 
looking  at  actual  political  conditions,  at  realities  and  not  names,  the 
United  States  Government,  constituted  in  1789,  retains  its  identity  of 
form  and  substance  more  than  any  other  government  in  Christendom, 
which  existed  at  the  time  we  entered  the  family  of  nations?  That  it  is  in 
fact  the  senior  and  not  the  junior  of  the  world's  governments  and  has  had 
a  longer  continuity  of  unaltered  political  institutions?  The  chronic  polit- 
ical confusion  and  fluctuating  systems,  the  checquered  existences  of  the 
States  and  communities  of  Mexico  and  every  Central  and  South  American 
State,  intermittently  rent  by  political  dissensions  and  overturned  by  revolu- 
tionary violence,  have  left  to  no  other  Government  on  this  hemisphere 
a  permanence  or  longevity  comparable  with  our  own. 

The  Great  Britain  of  1789  is  unquestionably  Greater  Britain  of  to-day; 
but  who  can  detect  much  resemblance  between  the  government  domi- 
nated by  the  narrow  mind  and  personal  will  of  George  the  Third,  and  that 
over  whicii  in  our  day  the  venerable  Victoria  so  mildly  reigns,  but  does 
not  rule  ?  Within  sixty  years  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  expanding 
by  military  and  commercial  conquests,  has  been  transformed  from  amon- 
archial  aristocracy  into  a  monarchial  democracy  in  which  the  laboring 
classes  are  the  strongest  element  numerically.  The  outline  of  a  mon- 
archy remains,  a  silhouette  of  its  former  self,  but  the  balance  of  political 
power  has  been  shifted.  Its  transfer  to  the  middle  classes  took  place  un- 
der the  reform  bill  of  1832 ;  to  the  laboring  classes  by  the  acts  of  1867  and 
1884;  and,  finally,  the  redistribution  act  of  1885  installed  an  actual  dem- 
ocracy in  power. 

On  our  northern  border  "old  Canada,"  with  one  French  and  one 
English  province,  is  almost  concealed  from  view  in  the  ample  embrace  of 
the  young  "Dominion,"  now  enjoying  its  24th  year  of  virtually  indepen- 
dent self-government. 

ivi223913 


— 4— 

The  straggling  and  vast,  but  dissevered  provinces,  scantily  populated, 
have  stretched  in  lusty  manhood  from  Nova  Scotia  through  the  wilder- 
ness to  tlie  Island  of  Van  Couver.  Thrown  on  their  own  resources  mainly, 
and  finding  strength  and  security  in  a  closer  Union,  they  have  learned 
the  great  lesson  of  self-reliant  manhood,  and,  with  institutions  free  as  our 
own,  are  to-day  no  longer  a  mere  colonial  dependency,  but  the  most  im- 
j)ortant  and  powerful  link  in  the  federation  of  the  British  Empire. 

Which  of  the  present  continental  governments  of  Europe  has  the  per- 
manence of  a  century  of  unbroken  and  settled  government  behind  it? 

Since  Benjamin  Franklin,  Silas  Dean,  and  Arthur  Lee  signed  our  first 
treaty  in  February,  1778,  with  His  Most  Christian  Majesty  of  France,  that 
nation.,  shaken  to  its  foundation  and  convulsed  with  the  successive  whirl- 
winds of  anarchy  and  tyranny,  has,  as  it  were,  but  yesterday  collected 
her  shattered  powers,  and  found  repose  and  promised  health  under  the 
forms  of  Republican  Government.  The  discontents  and  disorders  of 
France  culminated  in  revolution  in  the  very  year  of  the  adoption  of  their 
present  constitution  by  the  United  States,  and  put  an  end  not  only  to  the 
legitimate  monarchy  and  settled  government  in  that  country,  but  the  bril- 
liant and  blighting  career  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  in  the  twenty  years  of  his 
evil  ascendency,  spread  the  spirit  of  destruction  and  dislocation  throughout 
all  the  other  European  States.  He  moved  kings  and  princes  like  pup- 
pets ;  at  Erfurt  in  the  insolence  and  intoxication  of  newly  possessed  pow- 
er, he  filled  the  pit  of  his  theatre  with  kings  he  had  deprived  of  their 
kingdoms.  He  tore  crowns  from  royal  heads  and  placed  them  upon 
whatsoever  head  he  pleased.  He  crumpled  up  treaties  and  constitutions, 
trampled  upon  international  law,  obliterated  boundaries  ,  and  remodelled 
at  will  the  policies  and  institutions  of  nearly  every  European  state. 

If,  therefore,  we  desire  to  consider  European  governments  in  their 
present  entities, we  need  go  no  further  back  than  where  Napoleon  left  them 
in  1815,  or  may  indeed  stop  at  much  later  dates — as  witness  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  Belgium  as  a  separate  nationality,  in  1832,  and  the  obliteration 
of  Poland  from  the  map  of  Europe  at  about  the  same  date.  And  the  worst, 
the  most  baleful,  legacy  of  the  Napoleonic  period,  is  the  belief  in  JNIili- 
tarism,  to  which  he  gave  birth,  and  with  which  he  surrounded  himself  as 
the  only  safe  reliance,  the  sole  essential,  for  the  establishment  of  peace 
in  Christendom  and  a  just  equilibrium  of  power.  This  it  is  which  to-, 
day  makes  Europe  one  vast  entrenched  camp,  in  which  the  balance  of 
power  is  maintained  only  by  the  "tug  of  war,"  — a  condition  of  things 
which  cannot  be  permanent  and  is  inimical  and  absolutely  inconsistent 
Avith  successful  industry,  and,  need  I  say,  is  necessarily  fatal  to  the  princi- 
ples of  liberty,  and  the  expansion  of  human  faculties  for  the,  elevation  and 
advancement  of  the  race. 

As  an  historian  of  our  time  has  said,  "the  arts  of  destruction  are 
the  arts   which    have    made    the   greatest    progress."     Looking   at   the 


— 5— 

armaments  on  land  and  sea  of  the  newly  constructed  Empire  of  Germany, 
contemplating  the  life  and  teachings  of  Von  Moltke,  her  greatest  soldier, 
whose  venerable  form  has  just  been  reverently  consigned  to  earth,  and 
listening  to  the  utterances  of  her  young  "War  Lord"  who  accepts  no  law 
but  his  own  will, — how  far  from  actual  truth  is  the  description  by  Machia- 
velli,  four  centuries  ago,  "A  prince  is  to  have  no  other  designs,  nor 
thought,  nor  study,  hut  war,  and  the  arts  and  discipline  of  it?"  As  per- 
manence and  stabilit\-  are  desirable,  and,  as  all  must  admit,  essential 
to  secure  the  two  greatest  blessings  of  humanity — Peace  and  Liberty — I 
will  ask  the  favor  on  this  occasion  to  submit  some  reflections  ux)on  the 
best  means  by  which  they  can  be  secured. 

In  the  neAv  arrangements  of  political  power  to  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  our  forefathers  defined  with 
wdse  precision  the  methods  by  which  this  great  object  w'as  to  be  attained. 

To  this  end  they  altered  the  machinery  of  other  times  and  countries, 
and  laid  as  the  bed  rock,  the  foundation  stone  of  their  edifice,  non-use  for 
personal  aggrandizement,  or  private  objects,  of  whatsoever  belonged  to 
the  people  and  was  needful  for  their  government.  Agents  were,  of  course, 
necessary,  and  these  were  to  be  properly  compensated,  but  the  will  of  the 
agent  was  never  to  become  the  government,  nor  the  public  power  en- 
trusted to  him  to  be  made  an  engine  for  private  profit. 

The  shortness  of  the  lives  of  other  governments  instructed  them  how 
to  prolong  the  life  of  their  own,  and  in  the  graveyard  of  nations  they  read 
the  common  epitaph —  "DIED  of  the  selfishness  of  Rulers  and  the  want 
of  disinterestedness  in  the  guardianship  of  public  powers." 

But  equally  did  they  guard  against  the  oppression  of  the  citizen,  w^ell 
knowing  that  a  free  nation  must  be  composed  of  free  men,  and  therefore 
amid  abundant  guarantees  of  individual  freedom,  it  was  ordained  that  pri- 
vate property  should  not  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation. 

If  in  addition  to  the  protection  of  private  property  from  public  appro- 
priation, we  could  equally  secure  public  property  from  being  taken,  and 
public  powers  from  being  perverted,  for  private  use,  we  would  by  a  single 
stroke  have  deprived  much  of  our  present  legislation  of  its  inequality  and 
inequity,  and  have  gone  a  long  way  to  lessen  or  i)ut  an  end  to  those  popu- 
lar discontents  which  so  seriously  threaten  the  prosperity  and  peace  of  our 
country,  and  the  endurance  of  our  institutions. 

It  is  confidence  in  the  impartiality  of  the  judicial  branch  that  chiefly 
conduces  to  peace,  order,  and  content;  belief  in  this  leads  to  acquiesence  in 
decisions,  however  disappointing  and  adverse,  for  the  loser  feels  that  he 
has  had  a  fair  hearing  and  trial,  and  that  the  scales  of  justice  have  not 
been  turned  to  any  possible  personal  advantage  to  the  magistrate  who 
decides.  And  the  question  arises,  can  not  a  spirit  of  confidence  in  the  dis- 
interestedness and  impartiality  of  the  legislator,  equally  with  the  Judge, 
be  created  in  the  minds  of  our  countrymen  ? 


— 6— 

Why  should  not  the  same  public  spirit  animate  equally  both  branches 
of  the  public  service  ? 

The  first  step  towards  such  a  consummation  will  be  the  acceptance  of 
the  great  principle  that  public  powers  cannot  be  dedicated  to  private  pur- 
poses, but  that  all  laws  should  be  framed  and  administered  in  a  general 
interest  of  the  public  alone ;  in  following  this  equal  laws  can  be  best 
secured. 

We  say  of  a  Judge's  function — it  is  jus  dicere  nonjus  dare — but  it  must 
be  evident  to  any  mind  that  the  function  and  duty  jus  dare  is  full}'  as  im- 
portant, possibly  even  more  important,  than  jus  dicere,  and  should  be  ex- 
ercised in  as  high  and  impartial  a  spirit. 

How  can  this  be  secured? 

I  answer,  by  creating  a  standard  of  public  opinion  that  will  not  allow 
it  to  be  possible  for  a  popular  representative  to  work  and  vote  for  jDrivate 
interests  in  connection  with  public  questions.  If  we  cannot  find  a  frame  of 
words  for  such  an  expression  in  our  written  law,  it  must  pass  into  unwrit- 
ten law  that  public  powers  shall  not  be  so  prostituted  for  private  gain. 

Justice  will  never  be  established  by  mere  appointment  of  judges  and 
formation  of  courts,  but  by  the  maintenance  of  these  courts  in  the  admin- 
istration of  impartial  laws.  Laws  framed  under  personal  and  selfish  in- 
fluences, and  for  personal  aggrandizement,  can  never  be  agencies  of  jus- 
tice, and  if  we  go  back  into  the  region  of  causes  for  the  swift  decay  of 
governments,  if  we  seek  the  causa  causans  of  the  short  life  of  power,  we 
shall  discover  it  to  exist  in  unequal  laws,  and  inequality  before  the  law. 

The  gigantic  selfishness  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  rendered  him  blind  to 
the  consequences  of  his  systematic  sacrifice  of  all  sense  of  social  duty,  out- 
weighed the  force  of  his  marvelous  genius,  and  brought  his  insane  ambi- 
tions to  their  logical  and  necessarily  barren  goal. 

''The  principle  of  natural  right  is  the  onlv  science  that  does  not  re- 
quire to  be  studied — but  is 'engraved  on  every  person's  heart" — and  for 
this  he  cared  nothing. 

Depend  upon  it,  gentlemen,  this  government  of  ours  was  meant  to  en- 
dure, and  not  become  the  toy  of  selfish  and  capricious  rulers,  the  engine  of 
avarice,  nor  the  foot-ball  for  party  passions  and  personal  ambitions.  Pub- 
lic powers  were  necessarily  vested  in  individual  rulers  as  the  agents  for 
their  execution ;  but  they  were  never  to  be  employed  and  perverted  for 
private  ends. 

All  through  the  great  charter  of  our  political  liberties,  see  how  plainly 
''public  office  is  a  public  trust,"  and  note  the  necessary  implication  in 
every  grant  of  power  that  it  is  for  the  use  of  all  and  not  for  a  favored  few. 

Take  tlie  most  important  and  far  reaching  of  all  powers,  the  power 
to  lay  taxes,  duties,  imports,  and  excises  without  Hmit  as  to  amount— but 
for  what  purpose  ? — "the  common  defense,  the  general  welfare" — audit 


— 7— 

was  made  obligatory  that  all  such  burdens  were  to  be  "uniform  through 
out  the  United  States." 

Why  was  a  census  to  be  taken  every  ten  years  ?  Because  the  burden 
of  direct  taxes  and  the  right  to  proportionate  representation  were  welded 
together ;  no  direct  tax  was  to  be  laid  unless  in  proportion  to  such  enumer- 
ation of  the  inhabitants,  and  each  individual  was  to  bear  his  proportionate 
share,  and  no  more. 

Why  were  no  preferences  to  be  given  by  any  regulation  of  commerce  or 
revenue  to  the  ports  of  one  State  over  another?  Because  the  power  to  regu- 
late commerce  and  exact  duties  was  to  be  exercised  with  equality  over  the 
whole  territory  and  the  entire  population  of  the  union. 

Why  were  titles  of  nobility  interdicted  and  their  grant  by  the  States 
or  by  the  United  States  forbidden  ?  Because  individual  interests  or  selec- 
tion for  special  advantage  was  not  in  the  spirit  of  equality  before  the  law. 

Why  were  Senators  or  Representatives  in  Congress  made  ineligible  for 
any  office  created  during  the  term  for  which  they  were  elected,  or  the 
emoluments  whereof  should  have  been  increased  during  such  term?  Be- 
cause they  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  increase  their  own  power  or  profit 
personally  by  their  own  votes,  or  gain  private  advantage  from  the  public 
power  held  by  them  in  trust. 

And  lastly  :  Why  was  a  regular  statement  and  account  of  receipts  and 
expenditures  of  all  public  money  to  be  published  from  time  to  time  ?  Be- 
cause the  people  were  to  have  the  evidence  that  "public  money"  had  not 
been  applied  to  other  than  public  purposes,  and  had  not  been  diverted  into 
forbidden  channels  of  private  emolument. 

If  we  are  asked  why  the  United  States  at  the  lapse  of  a  century  has 
retained  unaltered  more  of  the  original  features  of  its  Constitution  and  pol- 
ity than  any  contemporaneous  government,  must  not  the  reply  be  that  such 
permanence  is  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  public  and  impersonal  objects 
and  spirit  of  our  institutions,  and  the  principles  of  personal  disinterested- 
ness and  unselfishness  which  were  ingrained  in  the  grant  of  the  necessary 
powers,  and  which  were  respected  and  obeyed  by  the  representatives  en- 
trusted with  their  administration  ? 

But  it  cannot  be  doubted  that,  in  the  rapid  progress  of  the  nation  in 
wealth  and  power,  with  the  consequent  multiplication  of  such  prizes,  under 
the  untrammelled  freedom  for  individual  faculties  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
wonderful  natural  resources  of  the  country,  the  principle  of  disinter- 
estedness and  unselfish  administration  has  been  seriously  impaired  and 
invaded  in  the  sharp  competition  of  trade  and  the  keen  rivalries  of  business. 
Combinations  of  capital,  intelligence,  and  selfish  vigor  incorporated  in  legal 
strength,  have  been  formed  upon  a  scale  unknown  in  the  previous  his- 
tory of  the  world,  and,  amid  the  exigencies  and  excitements  of  civil  war, 
have  contrived  to  obtain  possession  of  governmental  agencies  and  powers 
and  are  exercising  them  not  for  public  but  for  private  profit  and  advantage. 

"The  common  defence  and  general  welfare"  have  been  disregarded  or 


_8- 

subordinated  to  individual  and  class  profit  and  advancement,  which  are 
boldly  claimed  as  just  objects  for  special  encouragement  and  protection  by 
public  legislation, — and  a  construction  of  the  constitution  which  warrants 
such  action  has  become  with  many  a  political  creed. 

Such  a  condition  has  not  been  attained  per  saltum,  but  b}^  tentative 
steps  and  a  gradual  aggrandizement  of  private  power  over  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  public,  and  which  should  be  carefullj^  guarded  for  the  public  use. 

In  a  time  of  public  danger  and  confusion  the  cloak  of  patriotism  was 
the  outer  garment  which  concealed  the  real  objects,  and  where  the 
schemes  could  be  adroitly  engrafted  on  public  measures  they  were  carried 
along  by  the  force  of  virtuous  association. 

But  it  is  plain  that  the  fruits  of  such  disregard  of  basal  principles  will 
be  the  same  in  all  countries,  and  that  there  is  no  magic  in  the  name  or 
forms  of  a  republic  by  which  to  exorcise  such  evils  or  save  us  from  their 
logical  and  inevitable  consequences.  We  are  witnessing  on  a  vast  scale, 
and  with  various  and  powerful  combinations,  efforts  to  convert  a  govern- 
ment which  should  be  supported  by  its  citizens,  into  avast  organization  of 
citizens  claiming  to  be   supported  by  the  government. 

This  dangerous  and  widespread  misconception  of  the  true  theory  and 
principle  of  our  government  undoubtedly  exists,  and  imperils  the  safety 
and  permanence  of  our  institutions. 

An  important  illustration  of  the  evil  I  refer  to  is  found  among  that 
influential  and  aggressive  class  who  uphold  the  "spoils  system"  in  the 
conduct  and  regulation  of  the  civil  service. 

These  men  hold'  that  the  public  offices  which,  as  the  name  implies, 
are  apportionments  of  public  functions  and  duties  for  the  public  advantage, 
are  created  in  order  to  furnish  means  of  support  and  personal  emolument 
to  the  individuals  who  are  placed  in  them,  thus  losing  sight  altogether 
of  the  mutual  relation  of  a  government  and  its  agents ;  indeed  subverting 
fhat  relation  and  making  the  public  the  servant  of  its  own  employees  and 
agents ;  and  this  theory  logically  and  practically  carried  to  its  conclusion 
involves  nothing  less  than  the  revolution  and  defeat  of  our  republican  sys" 
tem.  In  fact,  it  reproduces  the  rule  of  the  Praetorian  Guard  of  ancient 
Rome, 

Carlyle  says  somewhere  that  many  speak  of  ''therudder  of  the  govern- 
ment," but  in  reality  they  mean  ''the  spigot  of  taxation."  This  phrase  is 
suggestive,  for  that  vast  and  sovereign  power  by  which  all  amounts  that  may 
be  fixed  by  law  can  be  drawn  from  the  body  of  the  people  to  fill  the  public 
treasury,  wherein  are  placed  fruits  of  human  labor,  is  proven  to  be  con- 
trolled by  "a  spigot"  called  the  "rudder  of  the  government,"  and  turned  off 
and  on  under  the  control  of  select  classes  of  interested  parties. 

I  will  not  abuse  the  privilege  given  me  to  speak  in  this  presence,  by 
trenching  upon  the  issues  between  the  political  parties  of  the  day,  nor  en- 
ter upon  the  relative  merits  of  restricted  or  unrestricted  commerce  with  for- 
eign countries  ;  but,  as  touching  the  principles  of  justice  which  are  essential 


— 9— 

to  all  parties  and  governments,  I  wish  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  re- 
sults of  the  perversion  of  the  most  essential  and  far  reaching  of  public 
power,  that  of  taxation,  by  the  insertion,  under  personal  influences  and 
for  personal  ends,  of  provisions  in  our  tariff  laws,  whicli,  being  expedi- 
tiously adopted  under  the  operation  ''of  tlie  previous  question,"  are  upon 
closer  examination  discovere<l  to  contain  consequences,  never  discussed, 
nor  understood  by  the  legislature  which  enacted,  nor  by  the  defenceless 
public  which  in  the  end  was  to  suffer  by  them. 

Debates  upon  the  items  of  a  tariff  bill  in  Congress  will  be  found  to 
consist  usually  of  the  disquisitions  by  expert  manufacturers  and  their 
agents,  congressional  and  lobby,  in  which  the  chemical,  mineral,  or  vegeta- 
ble history  and  composition  of  the  article  under  consideration  is  entered 
into  with  an  elaborate  fullness  and  technicality  quite  incomprehensible  to 
an  ordinar}^  mind,  and  which  usually  is  settled  by  the  dogmatic  statements 
of  alleged  specialists  and  their  convincing  briefs. 

In  such  discussions,  and  such  a  mode  of  treating  a  subject  so  multifa- 
rious, it  is  naturally  impossible  to  apply  any  principle  of  taxation,  and  the 
attempt  does  not  appear  to  be  frequently  made. 

But  after  enactment  into  law,  the  time  soon  arrives  for  its  practical  in- 
terpretation by  Collectors  of  Customs  and  Treasury  Agents,  and  then  the 
"true  inwardness"  of  the  clauses  is  made  manifest  to  the  public. 

On  the  dockets  of  the  United  States  Courts,  cases  arising  out  of  dis- 
puted interpretation  of  the  tariff  are  to  be  found  by  thousands. 

When  the  phraseology  of  all  the  various  provisions  of  the  tariff  have 
been  collated  for  joint  and  several  construction,  under  the  critical  analysis 
of  learned  judges  and  well  instructed  counsel,  aided  by  experts  and  special- 
ists, some  excessive  rate  of  duty  is  at  last  settled,  a  meaning  is  found 
which  was  placed  in  the  public  law  by  the  cunning  hand  of  private  interest, 
and  hidden  by  a  complication  of  language  and  the  detachment  of  control- 
ling words,  placed  in  some  unsuspected  and  remote  recess  of  the  statue ;  in 
no  other  way  can  duties  practically  prohibitory  be  accounted  for. 

By  such  means  duties  are  not  laid  for  the  common  defence  and  general 
welfare,  but  for  private  interests;  and  "commerce  with  foreign  nations" 
is  not  regulated,  but  prohibited  by  private  dictation;  and  the  intent  of 
the  fundamental  law  is  evaded  or  overthrown. 

Sometimes  the  desired  profit  is  attained  by  a  reverse  of  these  methods, 
and  extensive  entries  are  made,  by  the  initiated,  of  certain  merchandise 
under  high  rates  of  duty,  which  are  paid,  but  under' protest.  Cases  are 
permitted  to  accumulate,  until  vast  sums  have  been  paid  into  the  treasury, 
while  the  legality  of  the  exactions  still  continues  dependent  upon  subse- 
subsequent  judicial  decision. 

When  the  aggregation  of  cases  is  satisfactory,  and  sufficient  time  has 
elapsed  for  the  duties  to  be  added  to  the  foreign  price  of  the  merchandise 
and  paid  by  the  purchasing  and  consuming  American  public,  then  comes 


—10— 

the  time  to  gatlier  the  fruits  of  the  shimbering  meaning  of  the  tariff,  and 
"a  test  case"  is  brought  up  for  decision. 

Then  it  is  disclosed  that  a  lower  and  not  a  higher  duty  lay  in  the  in- 
ner folds  of  the  tariff  acts,  and  the  rival  ambiguities  are  duly  marshalled, 
the  mysteries  of  classification,  commercial  nomenclature,  and  foreign  man- 
ufacture are  explored,  and  as  a  result  ''another  job"  has  been  successful, 
and  the  "spigot  of  the  Treasury"  is  turned  on  to  pay  again  to  the 
dealer  the  money  he  had  already  collected  from  his  customer  in  the 
shape  of  duties  added  to  the  foreign  price. 

Such  cases  are  not  rare  exceptions;  like  ''sorrows,"  they 


-Come  not  single  spies, 


But  in  battalions -" 

It  matters  little  to  the  suffering  taxpayer  by  what  contrivance  or  un- 
der what  private  interest  he  is  impoverished — like  the  wound  of  Mercutio, 
" 'Tis  enough,  t'will  serve — ,"  and,  like  Mercutio,  he  may  exclaim — 
"A  plague  o'  both  your  Houses." 

Take  the  illustrations  from  the  Circuit  Court  reports  of  the  city  of  Phil- 
adelphia in  the  present  month  of  June  : — 

"The  government  paid  out  last  year  $2,500,000  in  refunding  duties 
paid  on  hat  trimmings  wrongly  classified  by  the  Collector  as  silk  manufac- 
turers." 

And  on  the  eighth  of  June :  "In  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  this 
morning  began  the  case  of  Meyer  versus  the  Collectors.  Unusual  interest 
is  manifested,  as  something  like  $30,000,000  is  at  stake,  the  case  involving 
a  refunding  of  duties  on  satins,  plushes,  and  velvets  alleged  to  come  un- 
der the  same  ruling  as  the  hat  trimming  cases." 

This  is  one  of  the  modes  in  which  the  common  wealth  is  subtracted 
from  the  common  treasury,  and  private  profit  is  obtained  under  an  abuse 
of  the  law  making  power  of  the  republic ;  now  see  how  the  same  result  is 
obtained  in  Russia — an  autocratic  government — tempered  (as  Talleyrand 
said)  by  assassination: 

WHAT  IT  COSTS  TO  BURY  A  GRAND  DUKE. 

"The  vast  sums  of  money  absorbed  by  the  extravagant  lives  led  by 
many  of  the  Russian  Grand  Dukes,  and  the  irregular  methods  occasion- 
ally employed  to  levy  them,  constitute  one  of  the  most  irksome  burdens 
of  the  taxpayer — who  is  the  peasant.  Grand  Ducal  luxury,  contrasted  with 
the  misery  and  silent  suffering  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  are  constant  themes 
of  conversation  in  every  mouth ;  but  the  death  of  some  Grand  Dukes — a 
Field  Marshal  or  a  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  Fleet,  for  instance — is  to  the 
full  as  costly  a  matter  in  proportion  as  his  life. 

It  was  in  the  light  of  a  financial  burden  that  the  Russian  authorities  at 
first  considered  the  death  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  Nicholavich,  and  so 
heavy  did  it  appear  to  them  that  the  decision  was  about  to  be  taken  to  con- 


—11— 

ceal  the  news  of  his  death  until  his  body  could  be  removed  from  the 
Crimea  to  the  station  of  Bologoye,  between  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg, 
where  his  decease  might  be  declared  to  haye  taken  place ;  but  on  giving 
the  matter  more  careful  consideration,  the  disadvantages  of  this  line  of 
action  became  apparent,  and  it  was  found  advisable  to  proclaim  his  death 
at  once.  According  to  the  ceremonial  which  regulates  the  burial  of  a- 
Field  Marshal,  two  double  lines  of  soldiers  must  be  stationed  on  either 
side  of  the  road  through  which  the  body  is  being  conveyed  from  the  place 
where  he  died  to  his  last  resting  place.  This  would  necessitate  the  dis" 
placement  of  whole  armies,  under  cover  of  wtich  any  number  of  troops 
could  be  massed  on  the  western  frontiers  without  exciting  comment  or 
remarks  at  the  time.  Moreover,  no  less  than  twenty-four  colonels  must 
accompany  the  body  all  the  way,  fulfilling  certain  duties  which  the  elab- 
orate ceremonial  declares  absolutely  indispensable.  I  have  not  succeeded 
in  discovering  the  exact  number  of  troops  which  wall  take  part  in  the  cer- 
emony between  the  Crimea  and  St.  Petersburg,  but  I  have  very  creditable 
authority  for  stating  that  the  military  expenditure  alone  will  reach  the 
round  sum  of  300,000  rubles,  say,  £40,000  !" 

Note,  I  pray  you,  the  sedulous  care  exhibited  by  our  forefathers  in 
the  very  commencement  of  our  government  to  separate  by  positive  inhi- 
bition public  interest  from  the  private  interests  of  its  officials. 

At  the  very  first  session  of  Congress,  on  September  second,  1789,  they 
established  the  Department  of  the  Treasury,  and  provided  : 

"No  person  appointed  to  the  ofiice  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  or 
First  Comptroller,  or  First  Auditor,  or  Treasurer,  or  Register,  shall  direct- 
ly or  indirectly  be  concerned  or  interested  in  carrying  on  the  business  of 
trade  or  commerce,  or  be  the  owner  in  whole  or  in  part  of  any  sea  vessel, 
or  purchase  by  himself,  or  another  in  trust  for  him,  any  public  lands,  or 
other  public  property,  or  be  concerned  in  the  purchase  or  disposal  of  any 
public  securities  of  any  State,  or  of  the  United  States,  or  take  or  apply  to 
his  own  use  any  emolument  or  gain  for  negotiating  or  transacting  any  bi;is- 
iness  in  the  Treasury  Deparrtment,  other  than  what  shall  be  allowed  by 
law."     And  then  follows  penalty  for  infraction. 

The  next  Congress  extended  similar  prohibitions  to  * 'every  clerk  em- 
ploj'ed  in  the  Treasury  Department,"  and  these  laws  remain  intact  upon 
the  statute  books,  and  are  in  force  today  as  Sections  243-4  of  the  Revision. 

Why  the  heads  of  the  Post  Office,  and  indeed  of  all  the  other  depart- 
ments, should  not  have  been  included  within  these  salutary  laws  to  pre- 
vent the  interrningling  of  private  interests  with  public  functions,  and  to 
protect  from  discoloration  that  perfect  clearness  that  should  be  insepara- 
ble from  the  execution  of  high  trusts  of  power,  I  cannot  answer;  but  the 
reason  of  the  law,  which  is  the  soul  of  the  law,  applies  with  equal  force  to 
every  public  trust — not  to  the  executive  and  judicial  branches  only,  but  to 


—12— 

the  legislative  as  well— and  in  the  degree  of  its  observance  will  be  found 
the  proportionate  moral  influence  of  the  Government  upon  the  people. 

With  just  pride  and  satisfaction  can  we  as  members  of  that  profession 
from  which  the  judicial  branch  of  the  Government  is  filled,  recognize  the 
universal  obedience  to  the  delicate  and  honorable  obligation,  not  written 
in  the  law  but  scrupulously  heeded  in  the  administration  of  justice,  that  a 
judge  will  decline  to  sit  in  causes  wherein  his  personal  interests  are  directly 
or  even  indirectly  involved  ;  or  in  cases  where  at  any  time  he  has  been  of 
counsel,  or  in  which  he  has  given  an  opinion,  or  in  which  a  near  relation- 
ship to  any  of  the  parties  may  exist. 

This  maintenance  of  impartiality  and  avoidance  of  all  possi))le  grounds 
of  suspicion  have  borne  their  fruits  and  have  implanted  in  the  public  mind 
a  feeling  of  universal  confidence  in  the  judiciary,  which  is  one  of  the  chief 
elements  of  our  strength  and  safety. 

These  principles  of  disinterested  administration  of  public  powers  can 
certainly  be  demanded  in  every  branch  of  the  government,  and,  if  followed, 
will  be  conducive  to  permanence  and  good  order,  because  they  will  engage 
and  command  popular  confidence  and  compel  the  respect  of  mankind. 

Under  their  operation  the  abuses  arising  from  unequal  and  unjust  leg- 
islation and  the  intrusion  of  sordid  and  selfish  interests  will  be  checked,  and 
the  causes  of  popular  restlessness  and  discontent  cannot  fail  to  be  abated 
— in  short,  it  would  be  a  radical  remedy  for  the  cliief  ills  and  dangers  that 
now  threaten  the  health  of  the  body  politic. 

There  is  no  lack  of  statutory  penalties  against  public  officers  for  mal- 
versation, and  illicit  profits  are  abundantly  prohibited.  Chapter  6  of  the 
Revised  Statutes,  relating  to  crimes,  contains  numerous  provisions  for  the 
protection  of  the  public  against  abuse  of  official  powers  and  the  betrayal  of 
public  trust,  and  I  draw  your  attention  to  these  features  of  the  law  as  rec- 
ognizing the  dut}^  and  necessity  of  preventing  the  use  of  public  powers  for 
private  emolument  or  advantage,  and  as  illustrating  the  great  American 
idea  of  government,  that  its  blessings  are  to  be  held  high  above  the  selfish 
control  of  any,  and  are  to  be  reserved  for  the  benefit  of  all  in  equal  measure  ; 
in  other  words  that  law  and  justice  are  to  be  inseparable. 

With  the  inspiring  motive  personal,  selfish,  and  mercenary,  the  out- 
come must  needs  be  corruption,  and  public  service  will  soon  be  honey- 
combed with  dishonesty,  and  our  institutions  will  crumble  with  the  dry  rot. 
Events  transpiring  with  alarming  frequencyin  our  centres  of  population, 
demonstrate  how  the  fear  of  the  exposure  of  a  guilty  member  of  the  official 
association  leads  to  the  concealment  of  his  defalcations  and  crimes,  bv  those 
near  him  and  cognizant,  or  strongly  suspicious,  of  his  guilt,  because  the 
combination  of  personal  interests  that  has  placed  official  power  in  their 
hands,  has  either  excluded  or  subordinated  the  public  welfare,  the  com- 
mon wealth,  from  its  rightful  and  primary  place. 

Beginning  with  a  lawful  salary  attached  to  an  office,  to  enable  the 


—13— 

duties  to  be  performed,  but  given  and  received  as  a  personal  reward,  and 
for  other  than  public  service,  it  is  impossible  that  unlawful  uses  of  the  pub- 
lic powers  of  the  office  should  not  follow,  and  that,  private  gain  being  the 
motive,  it  should  not  be  pursued  in  every  direction,  in  utter  disregard  of 
honesty  and  fidelity  to  the  public  interests. 

A  late  defalcation  in  the  office  of  treasurer  in  one  of  the  largest  and  rich- 
est communities  in  the  United  States  has  disclosed,  among  other  delin- 
quencies, the  fact,  that,  though  owning  valuaVjle  real  estate,  no  taxes  were 
required  to  be  paid  thereon  by  the  influential  incumbent  for  several  years 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  his  immense  defalcations,  nor  any  return  or  record 
made  of  such  a  delinquency.  Such  a  condition  of  things  could  only  re- 
sult from  a  long-continued  and  widespread  system  by  which  public  office 
is  permitted  to  be  the  spoils  of  party,  and  the  whole  official  atmosphere 
becomes  infected  with  a  mercenary  spirit.  No  matter  how  high  the  office — 
the  man  placed  in  it  by  such  methods,  under  such  rules,  and  with  such  as- 
sociations, cannot  ignore  thesm  nor  free  himself  from  connection  with  them, 
nor  from  their  influence. 

"Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles?"  When  the 
roots  of  power  are  imbedded  in  the  soil  of  mercenarv  and  corrupt  politics, 
is  it  not  idle  to  hope  for  the  permanence  of  such  a  system?  It  is  contrary 
to  justice,  and,  in  the  order  of  a  Divinely  governed  world,  must  be  short- 
lived. In  the  words  of  Carlyle — "Add  only  this  first,  last  article  of  faith, 
the  'Alpha  and  Omega'  of  all  faith  among  men,  that  nothing  which  is 
unjust  can  hope  to  continue  in  the  world." 

Honest  men  are  naturally  excluded  from  such  association,  for  they 
w^ould  be  fatal  to  its  objects.  At  best  they  may  admit  men  of  negative 
honesty, — that  kind  of  honesty  which,  as  Judge  Black  said,  it  is  a  disgrace 
to  lack, — but  of  affirmative  aggressive  honesty,  that,  which  strikes  fraud 
wherever  it  sees  it,  they  stand  in  dread,  and  rule  its  owners  out  as  un- 
fitted for  "practical  politics." 

He  who  seryes  the  public,  who  believes  that  the  powers  of  whatever 
office  he  may  hold  are  held  by  him  in  trust  for  the  public,  has  a  basis  of 
conduct,  a  pathway  of  action,  which  leads  him  away  from  the  snares  and 
pitfalls  which  private  profit  offers  for  his  entanglement  and  seduction. 

The  spoils  system,  the  theory  of  mercenary  objects  only  in  executing 
public  powers,  as  it  expands  in  its  vicious  acceptance,  necessarily  lowers  the 
conception  of  the  government  and  its  high  responsibility  in  the  minds  of 
officials,  nor  can  it  fail  to  lower  the  tone  of  our  national  character,  and 
discourage  those  moral  forces  which  are  the  chief  defence  and  reliable 
mainstays  of  national  safety. 

The  increasing  comprehension,  by  means  of  their  letters  and  contem- 
poraneous memoirs,  of  the  public  men  of  the  earlier  years  of  our  govern- 
ment, discloses  almost  without  exception  how  strong  and  pervading  was 
the  sense  of  disinterestedness  and  unselfish  devotion  to  their  public  duties  • 


—14— 

Facile princeps,  George  Washington,  declined  from  the  first  to  the  last, 
in  the  fiald  or  in  t!i8  council,  to  accept  any  pecuniary  compensation 
bej'oud  his  actual  expenses. 

The  concession  of  the  principle  that  public  powers — powers  attached 
to  public  office  and  necessary  or  incidental  for  the  performance  of  its 
functions — can  be  bestowed  for  private  ends,  or  exercised  for  private  py:'ofit 
or  advantage,  unquestionably  substitutes  a  selfish  and  mercenary  motive 
and  theory  for  a  disinterested  and  patriotic  motive  and  theory  ;  and,  by  rep- 
itition,  the  former  becomes  the  accepted  rule  of  action,  low  conceptions  of 
duty  take  the  place  of  high  and  honorable  tone,  mean  and  contracted 
views,  limited  to  self  and  selfish  objects,  narrow  the  scope  of  vision,  and 
all  proper  perception  of  the  general  welfare  and  generous  policies  for  a 
nation's  interest  are  lost. 

I  hfive  said  that  giving  over  the  civil  service  of  the  country  to  the  spoils- 
system  would  be  destructive  of  the  character  of  our  government  and  there- 
fore fatal  to  its  permanence. 

It  is  not  needful  to  dwell  upon  its  inefficiency  and  consequent  expen- 
siveness,  because  an  increased  number  of  officials  might  after  a  fashion 
possibly  accomplish  the  same  amount  of  work  that  a  much  smaller  number 
selected  on  the  score  of  fitness  and  merit  could  do  much  better,  when  or- 
ganized and  acting  on  different  lines  and  under  a  different  inspiration.  For, 
if  public  office  is  to  be  conferred  on  men  as  personal  rewards  and  for  the 
one  purpose  of  obtaining  its  emoluments, — and  as  good  behavior  did  not 
put  them  in  office,  so  neither  will  it  retain  them  there, — and  with  the  prin- 
ciple to  gain  all  they  can  while  rendering  as  little  public  service  as  possible, 
who  can  be  surprised  if  illicit  profits  should  be  sought,  and  such  a  sorry 
sight  as  is  now  presented  in  the  great  city  of  Philadelphia  be  the  natural 
result? 

There  may  be  a  measure  in  money  of  the  cost  of  an  inefficient  civil 
service,  but  not  of  a  selfish  and  corrupt  one.  The  lowered  tone  of  public 
service  in  a  popular  government  leads  to  a  degradation  in  the  national 
character,  and  a  resultant  disbelief  and  disrespect  for  popular  self-govern- 
ment. Heaven  help  a  people  when  the  virus  of  self-distrust  shall  enter 
the  veins  of  the  body  politic,  for  it  is  the  precursor  of  decay  and  revolution. 

Mercenary  issues  will  be  tried  by  mercenary  men  and  mercenary 
methods,  and  if  the  contests  of  political  parties,  the  choice  of  their  candi- 
dates, the  selection  of  their  measures,  shall  turn  upon  the  spoils  and  money 
profits  of  place,  other  issues  vital  to  public  prosperity  and  affecting  the 
honor  and  perpetuity  of  the  government  will  cease  to  occupy  the  minds  of 
our  citizens,  and  men  competent  to  deal  with  such  topics  will  not  be  called 
into  public  service.  Thus  our  rulers  will  be  trading  politicians,  and  not 
statesmen,  and  the  great  and  noble  purposes  for  which  our  government  was 
organized  will  fall  into  neglect  and  be  forgotten.  If  such  mercenary  combi- 
nations shall  control  the  choice  and  action  of  political  parties,  the  sub- 


—15— 

stance  as  well  as  the  form  of  our  government  will  be  changed,  and,  for  the 
short  time  it  would  exist,  we  should  see  a  government  of  placemen  by 
.placemen  and  for  placemen. 

The  serious  and  responsible  duties  which  are  inherent  in  all  govern- 
ments being  delivered  into  the  hands  of  men  wholly  unfitted  for  their 
comprehension  cannot  be  executed,  for  mere  placemen  can  never  perform 
the  tasks  of  statesmen  any  more  than  cooks  and  scullions  can  navigate  a 
stately  ship. 

'  The  creation  of  material  wealth  will  not  relieve  the  danger,  but  will 
increase  it.  There  are  trials  and  temptations  in  such  prosperity  more 
difficult  to  withstand  and  more  fatal  to  public  virtue  than  poverty.  The 
greater  the  prizes,  the  fiercer  and  less  scrupulous  the  competition  to  gain 
them,  and  he  must  indeed  be  blind  who  does  not  read  the  signs  and  por- 
tents of  danger  and  disorder  in  this  country  which  threaten  the^perma- 
nence  of  its  institutions  :  the  discontent  of  the  laboring  classes ;  the  sep- 
arate and  special  organizations  and  associations,  combining  for  relief  to 
procure  mitigation  of  the  causes  of  their  distress, — the  Brotherhoods  of 
skilled  artisans — Knights  of  Labor — Trades  Unions — Farmers'  Alliances 
— together  with  countless  "orders,"  and  alas  !  secret  political  societies  ;  ali 
joining  in  a  common  complaint  of  the  inequality  of  the  burdens  and  of  the 
benefits  of  the  laws,  of  their  unequal  share  in  the  distribution  of  the 
profits  of  the  productive  industry  which  they  claim  to  represent,  and  de- 
manding the  enactment  of  sweeping  and  drastic  measures  which  shall  in 
some  undefined  way,  about  which  there  is  no  agreement,  make  things 
more  equal. 

How  can  laws  be  equal  unless  they  are  framed  by  men  wdio  are  impar- 
tial, and  private  interest  is  not  permitted  to  write  on  the  statute  books 
measures  for  its  own  adancement  ? 

The   chronic  evils  of  older   societies   and  over-crowded  populations 
surely  ought  not  so  soon  to  threaten  this  broad  land  with  its  countless  acres 
of  tillable  soil  open  to  occupation  and  waiting  only 
"  To  be  tickled  with  the  hoe 
That  they  may  laugh  with  a  harvest." 

But  nevertheless  they  do  threaten  us.  History  proves  that  whenever 
special  privileges  and  immunities  are  conceded,  although  they  may  produce 
splendid  fortunes  for  the  few,  yet  they  stand  out  in  conspicous  contrast, 
towering  over  a  long  low  level  of  impoverishment  and  distress  of  the 
many. 

This  government  of  ours  was  never  intended  by  its  founders  to  add 
artificially  to  the  natural  and  inevitable  inequalities  of  men,  but  was  in- 
tended to  be  a  government  of  laws,  in  which  none  should  be  above  the 
law,  and  none  should  ever  be  depressed  below  the  level  of  the  law. 

Impossibilities  they  did  not  essay,  and  the  only  equality  they  sought 
to  establish  was  the  equality  of  opportunity, and  in  order  that  the  public 


—16— 

laws  should  not  become  engines  to  destroy  it,  they  placed  the  great  and 
essential  powers  of  government  under  a  written  deed  of  trust,  to  be  exer- 
cised by  agents  sworn  to  respect  its  limitations  and  execute  its  powers  for 
the  equal  use  of  all  and  only  for  public  ends, — and  the  permanence  of  the 
system  will  depend  uj)on  the  fidelity  with  which  this  American  principle 
is  observed. 

Never  before  have  inequalities  in  fortune  been  so  extreme  as  those 
now  exhibited  in  the  United  States,  and  in  no  State  more  conspicuously 
than  in  California,  where  the  contrasts  are  painful  and  amazing,  and  yet 
where  but  a  few  years  ago  absolute  equality  reigned,  and  society^was 
organized  upon  the  most  primary  basis. 

Listen  to  tlie  comments  of  an  intelligent  and  friendly  foreigner, 
Professor  Bryce,  in  his  American  Commonwealth  : 

"The  growfli  of  vast  fortunes  has  helped  to  create  a  political  problem, 
for  the'y  become  a  mark  for  the  invective  of  the  more  extreme  sections  of 
the  Labor  party.  But  should  its  propaganda  so  far  prosper  as  to  produce 
legislative  attacks  upon  accumulated  wealth,  such  attacks  will  be  directed 
(at  least  in  the  first  instance),  not  against  individual  rich  men,  but  against 
incorporated  companies,  since  it  is  through  corporations  that  wealth  has 
made  itself  obnoxious.  Why  the  power  of  these  bodies  should  have  grown 
greater  in  the  United  States  than  in  Europe,  and  why  they  should  be  jnore 
often  controlled  by  a  small  knot  of  men,  are  questions  too  intricate  to  be 
here  discussed.  Companies  are  in  many  ways  so  useful  that  any  general 
diminution  of  the  legal  facilities  for  forming  them  seems  improbable  ;  but 
I  conceive  that  they  will  be  even  more  generally  than  hitherto  subjected 
to  special  taxation  ;  and  that  their  power  of  taking  and  using  public  fran- 
chises will  be  further  restricted.  He  who  considers  the  irresponsible 
nature  of  the  power  which  three  or  four  men,  or  perhaps  one  man,  can  ex- 
ercise through  a  great  corporation,  such  as  a  railroad  or  telegraph  company, 
the  injury  they  can  inflict  on  the  public  as  well  as  on  their  competitors, 
the  cynical  audacity  with  which  they  have  often  used  their  wealth  to  se- 
duce officials  and  legislators  from,  the  path  of  virtue,  will  find  nothing 
unreasoniible  in  the  desire  of  the  American  masses  to  regulate  the  man- 
agement of  corporations  and  narrow  the  range  of  their  action.  The  same 
remark  applies,  with  even  more  force,  to  combinations  of  men  not  incor- 
X)orated  but  acting  together,  the  so-called  Trusts,  i.  e.  commercial  rings,  or 
syndicates.  The  next  few  years  or  even  dcades  may  be  largely  occupied 
with  the  effort  to  deal  wdth  these  phenomena  of  a  commercial  system 
far  more  highly  developed  than  the  world  has  yet  seen  elsewhere.  The 
economic  advantages  of  the  amalgamation  of  railroads  and  the  tendency 
in  all  departments  of  trade  for  large  concerns  to  absorb  or  supplant- 
small  ones,  are  both  so  marked  that  problems  of  this  order  seem  likely 
to  grow  even  larger  and  more  urgent  than  they  now  are.  Their  solution 
will  demand,  not  only  great  legal  skill,  but  great  economic  wisdom." 

Looking  back  to  tiie  birth  of  our  republic  w^e  see  none  but  very  poor 


—17— 

men— not  a  single  fortune  that  to-day  would  be  deemed  considerable.  With 
heart  and  brain  our  forefathers  devoted  themselves  to  the  creation  of 
safeguards  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The  unit  of  the  State  was  the 
free  individual ,  and  they  knew  that  with  the  individual  freedom  preserved, 
a  State  composed  of  such  units  would  remain  free.  Therefore  men  and  the 
rights  of  men  were  to  be  represented  in  the  structure  of  public  powers 
they  were  about  to  build,  and  to  property  they  gave  political  representa- 
tion in  but  a  single  instance,  and  tliat  a  quasi  property  with  characteristics 
that  rendered  it  indeed  "a  peculiar  institution." 

I  refer  to  the  recognition  of  property  in  negro  slaves,  to  which  a  cer- 
tain reduced  right  of  representation  in  the  popular  branch  of  the  Leg- 
islature was  accorded  in  those  communities  in  which  these  ''other  persons" 
(for  the  word  "slave"  never  was  used  in  the  constitution)  were  held. 
AVhen  in  the  evolution  of  free  institutions  an  end  came  to  property  in  man, 
the  last  vestige  was  removed  from  our  system  of  the  right  of  any  species  of 
property  to  political  representation  and  consequent  control. 

But  whc  will  say  that  wealth  and  property  are  without  representation  in 
our  government '.  Do  they  not  admittedly,  unduly,  and  dangerously  influence 
legislation  ?  The  growth  of  the  plutocratic  tendency  in  our  country  has 
been  too  rapid  and  too  baleful  to  be  ignored,  and  against  it  every  champion 
of  constitutional  liberty,  and  every  man  who  desires  the  permanence  of 
republican  institutions  should  oppose  himself  steadfastly,  for  under  the 
selfish  rule  of  wealth  every  noble  sentiment-  and  just  sense  of  unselfish 
obligation  to  society  would  wither,  labor  would  soon  be  sunk  into  pauperism, 
and  pauperism  easily  turned  to  crime,  and  then  property  becomes  the  ob- 
ject of  assault  and  ultimately  is  undermined  and  perishes. 

All  the  methods  of  plutocracy  are  base  and  evil  and  tend  to  corrupt 
and  degrade  humanity. 

Bribery  has  been  described  as  '-the  revenge  that  property  takes  on 
numbers,"  and  bribery  is  the  chief  and  natural  weapon  of  plutocracy 
whenever  safety  will  permit  its  insulting  use.  The  outrage  and  insult  of 
the  crime  seem  especially  bitter  when  a  people  are  bribed  with  their  own 
money,  and  unjust  laws  passed  in  their  names  are  made  the  means 
of  plundering  them.  When  a  great  and  essential  public  power  like  taxa- 
tion is  turned  into  a  means  of  supply  for  the  bribery  of  the  masses,  from 
whose  labor  the  taxes  have  been  drawn,  the  intent  of  the  grant  of  that 
power  to  Congress  is  wickedly  defeated. 

The  taxing  power  is  public  property — it  belongs  per  capita  to  all  citi- 
zens of  the  republic — and  all  contrivances  by  which  it  is  exercised  for  pri- 
vate profit  create  inequality  and  are  in  violation  of  the  conditions  under 
which  the  power  was  delegated. 

This  principle  I  hold  to  be  essential  for  that  equality  *of  law  which  is 
the  chief  security  of  its  permanence.  It  is  not  obscure;  it  is  capable  of 
precise  formulation,  it  can  be  defined  in  clear  language,  seen  by  the  eye, 


—18— 

heard  by  the  ear,  and  comprehended  by  the  mind  of  every  reasonable  being. 
It  is  the  friend  of  individual  liberty ;  it  is  a  foe  to  socialism  ;  it  appeals  to 
the  spirit  of  manhood  which  desires  no  undue  advantage  or  favor  in  the 
struggle  for  life.  It  is  sustained  by  Honor,  which  is  a  fine  sense  of  justice  ; 
it  contains  the  essence  of  fair  play  and  will  elevate  and  ennoble  every  man 
who  becomes  its  advocate  and   disriple. 

Standing  before  an  audience  of  young  Americans,  I  earnestly  beg  of 
you  as  you  love  your  country  and  wish  its  institutions  to  endure,  accept 
no  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  consent  to  the  enactment  of  no 
law,  that  does  not  impartially  exercise  public  power  for  the  welfare  of 
the  public  alone  and  forbid  the  hand  of  individual  profit,  no  matter  under 
what  pretext,  to  stretch  its  fingers  into  the  peoples'  treasury,  or  their 
private  pockets. 

An  object  lesson  has  been  lately  supplied  of  the  causes  that  tend 
to  secure  permanence  in  public  affairs,  which  I  believe  will  interest  and 
instruct  you. 

I  find  it  in  a  monograph  prepared  by  Mr.  Heftry  Harrisse,  of  Paris,  a 
distinguished  savant  and  scholar,  assisted  by  the  liberality  of  that  true 
friend  t)f  letters,  the  late  Samuel  L.  M.  Barlow,  of  New  York,  and  lay 
before  you  the  remarkable  history  of  the  Bank  of  St.  George,  in  Genoa. 

A  few  years  ago  a  letter  was  off'ered  for  sale  in  this  country, 
alleged  to  be  the  original,  written  by  Christopher  Columbus,  from  Seville 
on  April  2nd,  1502,  when  he  was  about  to  sail  on  his  fourth  and  last  voy- 
age, and  addressed  to  the  magnificent  House  of  St.  George  at  Genoa. 
Thanks  to  the  intelligent  research  and  acumen  of  Mr.  Harrisse,  the  real 
original  was  discovered  in  the  files  of  the  Bank  of  St.  George,  in  Genoa, 
and  its  fraudulent  similation  was  deprived  of  success.  Of  the  purport  of 
^his  letter,  suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  contains  the  gift,  in  trust  to  his 
correspondent,  of  one-tenth  of  the  entire  revenues  of  his  newly  discov- 
ered trans-atlantic  dominion,  for  the  purpose  "Of  reducing  the  tax  upon 
corn,  wine,  and  other  provisions"  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  It  discloses 
the  great-hearted  generosity  and  public  spirit  of  the  mighty  discoverer, 
but  its  revival  after  the  lapse  of  four  centuries  brings  with  it  other  les- 
sons which  may  well  be  heeded  in  our  own  day. 

The  office  or  Bank  of  St.  George  was  founded  in  the  year  1407, 
and  was  at  first  what  we  would  now  call  a  private  corporation,  although 
endowed  with  the  most  extensive  capacity  ever  granted  to  a  body  cor- 
porate ;  but  it  soon  acquired  other  prerogatives  and  ceased  to  be  amenable 
to  the  judicial  power  of  the  state  and  became  invested  with  a  sover- 
eignty which  rendered  the  institution  equal  to  the  state  itself.  In  fact, 
there  existed  a  curious  dual  sovereignty,  and  an  historian  of  the  times 
remarks  "We  behold  in  the  Ufficio  di  San  Giorgio  what  legislators  and 
philosophers  never  did  anticipate,  viz :  two  republics  existing  within  the 


-19— 

same  city  walla — the  one  turbulent  and  constantly  disturbed  by  factions  ; 
the  other  stable,  serene,  and  the  guardian  of  venerated  custom  for  the 
good  of  all."  This  remark  was  only  a  repetition  of  what  Machiavelli  had 
said  half  a  century  before,  and  has  been  repeated  by  all  subsequent  his- 
torians who  have  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  Bank  of  St.  George. 

This  institution  survived  in  useful  existence  for  four  centuries,  and 
only  disappeared  in  1796  by  the  brute  force  and  spoliation  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  who  overthrew  the  Republic  of  Genoa,  and  placed  new  rulers 
in  power,  who  inaugurated  their  regime  by  depriving  the  Bank  of  St. 
George  of  all  its  resources  and  changing  the  essential  character  of  the 
institution. 

The  spirit  which  prompted  its  creation  is  manifested  in  the  first  sen- 
tences of  the  act  of  incorporation. 

"Whereas  the  Commonwealth  of  Genoa  is  immensely  in  debt  and 
nothing  is  left  in  the  treasury  to  meet  daily  expenses  or  unexpected  and 
unavoidable  expenditures,  nor  to  redeem  public  loans,  and  taxes  which, 
when  first  levied,  were  made  redeemable,  are  at  present  becoming 
perpetual : 

Now,  therefore,  the  General  Assembly  does  hereby  appoint  a  Com- 
mission with  full  power  to  sink  and  extinguish  the  liabilities  of  the 
Commonwealth,  settle  and  unite  all  shares  of  various  companies,  by  con- 
solidating so  that  they  form  a  single  corporation,  called  "Compere  di  San 
Giorgio,"  to  revise  accounts,  collect  assets,  fix  revenues,  reform  rules  and 
privileges,  and  induce  all  other  modification  and  order  such  other  pay- 
ments as  they  may  deem  useful  and  necessary,  without  having  recourse 
to  any  process  of  law,  and  as  much  as  can  be  without  injury  to  anybody'." 

The  records  of  this  remarkable  institution  remain  intact  and  explain 
fully  the  causes  for  its  survival  in  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crush 
of  dynasties  and  governments,  amid  which  it  stood  erect  for  so  long  a 
time. 

It  was  not  a  mere  moneyed  institution  intended  only  to  enrich  its  par- 
ticipants, but  by  its  administration  it  became  in  the  belief  of  the  Genoese 
a  permanent  and  inviolable  refuge  for  public  as  well  as  private  interests. 

In  all  the  mutations  of  public  power  amid  popular  tumults  and  the 
vicissitudes  of  affairs,  the  people  of  Italy  longed  for  a  stable  institution 
upon  which  they  might  lean  for  support,  and  the  bank  of  St.  George  im- 
parted this  confidence  and  afforded  a  stronghold  inaccessible  to  political 
ambition — the  scourge  of  Italy.  The  people  were  impressed  with  the 
firm  belief  that  it  was  an  institution  where  could  be  lodged  in  safety 
whatever  they  had  laid  by  for  old  age,-  for  their  families,  and  for  public 
charities,  and  this  confidence  grew  until  the  institution  seemed  to  be  en- 
dowed with  moral  power,  embodying  all  that  was  noble  in  the  race  and 
great  in  the  state,  and  containing  elements  for  the  personal  welfare  of 
everv  citizen. 

The  annals  of  the  institution  teem  with  instances  of  patriotic  service 


— ^0- 

to  the  state,  and  the  rights  and  immunities  conferred  upon  it  by  the  state 
were  used  with  such  skill,  success,  honesty,  and  patriotism  as  to  elicit 
the  admiration  of  statesmen  and  the  gratitude  of  the  rex>ublic,  because  the 
welfare  of  the  citizen  was  always  first,  and  the  pecuniary  gain  of  the 
Bank  always  subordinate  and  secondary,  in  the  conduct  of  its  operations. 

It  is  of  interest  to  learn  what  were  the  bases  of  such  an  institution. 

In  the  first  place  it  was  independent  and  no  one  connected  with  it 
could  hold  a  state  office. 

Its  supreme  powers  were  vested  in  a  Board  of  Directors,  styled  "Pro- 
tectors," who  were  chosen  in  a  manner  calculated  to  insure  a  choice  as 
impartial  as  could  be.  These  Protectors  received  no  emoluments  what- 
ever, but  had  titles  of  high  honor  and  were  treated  with  the  greatest 
respect. 

These  Protectors  and  all  other  important  functionaries  of  the  Bank 
were  elected  for  only  one  year,  and  only  one  member  of  any  family  could 
hold  office  during  that  term. 

The  Protectors  when  retiring  convoked  the  electoral  college  and  were 
bound  to  impress  upon  its  members  the  paramount  duty  of  laying  aside 
personal  preferences  and  prejudices,  and  to  vote  only  for  men  whose 
intelligence,  patriotism,  and  integrity  were  calculated  to  secure  the  exis- 
tence and  welfare  of  the  Bank. 

No  high  functionary  of  the  Bank  was  re-eligible  until  three  years 
had  elapsed.  The  managers  were  strictly  forbidden  to  speculate,  and  to 
own  a  private  interest  in  any  of  the  bank's  affairs;  nor  could  they  be 
interested  in  another  banking  house,  and  not  only  were  their  functions 
purely  honorary,  but  they  were  obliged  to  take  oath  never  to  solicit  for 
themselves  or  their  relations  any  salaried  office. 

To  secure  the  observance  of  these  rules  there  were  four  overseers, 
called  "Sindicatori,"  who  watched  over  the  deeds  of  everyone  connected 
with  the  Bank,  high  or  low,  not  excepting  the  Protectors.  These  sup- 
ervisors were  appointed  for  a  single  year,  at  a  salary  of  twenty-five  gold 
florins,  and  no  more. 

Dulj^  sworn  Notaries  Public  alone  entered  the  debts,  credits,  and 
orders  to  pay,  and  these  Notaries  were  changed  every  year. 

The  book-keeping  was  by  double  entry,  and  the  system,  in  its  per- 
fection, is  not  surpassed  by  the  Bank  of  England  to-day. 

Secrecy  and  silence  were  maintained,  to  which  all  the  officers,  clerks, 
and  menials  were  bound. 

Every  one  connected  with  the  Bank  subscribed  the  following  oath  : 

*'I  swear  on  the  Holy  Writ  to  discharge  legally  and  faithfully  the 
duties  entrusted  to  me  by  the  office,  to  defend  and  promote  to  the  best 
of  my  ability  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  company,  and  neither  myself 
nor  my  wife  nor  my  children  have  or  will  have  an  interest  in  state  taxes 
or  impositions  of  any  kind,  so  help  me  God." 

By  such  provisions  it  was  sought  to  guard  against  the  frailty  of  human 


—21— 

nature,  and,  reading  the  history  of  our  own  time  and  the  melancholy  and 
mortifying  history  of  many  banks  of  the  present  day,  we  may  learn  what 
principles  are  essential  to  secure  permanence  in  any  human  institution. 

Is  it  not  an  independent  disinterestedness,  and  unselfish  impartiality 
in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  others?  And  the  wider  the  scope 
of  the  agency,  the  vaster  the  field  of  action,  the  greater  the  importance  of 
the  subjects, — so  much  the  more  necessary  is  the  observance  of  these 
principles. 

Under  their  influence  the  edge  of  corruption  would  be  blunted, 
nepotism  and  favoritism  would  be  discouraged,  and  a  purification  of  the 
national  character  from  selfish  motives  and  selfish  actions  would  be 
largely  induced. 

To  what  class  of  American  citizens  can  appeal  for  a  recognition  and 
support  of  these  principles  be  made  more  confidently  and  fittingly  than 
ot  those  who  have  adopted  the  study  and  practice  of  the  law  as  their  pro- 
fession? What  is  the  real  lawyer's  just  and  abiding  duty?  To  ascertain 
what  is  the  law  and  lend  his  aid  to  have  it  truly  declared  and  enforced. 

Pro  clientibus  saepe. 
Pro  lege  semper. 

History  records  the  services  of  lawyers  in  every  age  to  the  cause  of 
liberty,  and,  in  the  country  from  which  our  institutions  are  chiefly 
derived,  it  will  be  found  that  the  leaders  in  the  Parliamentary  struggles 
to  uphold  the  laws  against  corrupt  and  arbitrary  power  and  the  prerog- 
ative of  Kings,  have  been  members  of  that  profession. 

The  laws  of  our  government  should  embody  the  principle  upon  which 
that  government  is  organized,  and  under  our  written  constitution  careful 
and  constant  attention  should  be  given  to  restrain  the  statute  within  the 
limitations  of  the  delegations  of  powder. 

I  have  endeavored,  imperfectly  as  I  am  aware,  to  enforce  the  essen- 
tial theory  of  our  popular  system,  that  as  we  have  no  government  but 
the  law,  we  should  have  no  laws  but  such  as  are  disinterestedly  framed 
in  the  interests  of  the  people  at  large  for  the  common  defence  and  gen- 
eral welfare,  and  not  at  the  dictation  of  individual  or  class  interests. 

The  equities  of  our  system  are  ennobling  to  the  mind  and  nature  of 
any  one  who  can  comprehend  them  and  is  willing  manfully  to  sustain 
them.  As  a.  profession,  honorably  followed,  ours  is  the  noblest — as  a  trade, 
it  is  the  meanest. 

So  long  as  civilized  society  exists,  justice  will  be  sought  for  by  men  as 
the  essential  basis  for  individual  claims  and  the  settlement  of  their  infi- 
nite and  various  causes  for  disagreement,  and  in  the  enactment  and  ad- 
ministration of  just  laws  lie  the  best  hopes  for  permanence  and  prosperity 
of  human  institutions.  These  are  to  be  the  subject  of  your  studies  and 
the  guides  to  your  exertions.  If  I  have  to-day  aided  to  place  one  stone 
firmly  in  the  great  wall  of  truth  and  justice,  I  shall  have  my    reward 


—22— 

personally  and  professionally  in  the  sense  of  disinterested  service  to 
a  government  under  which  I  was  born  and  whose  blessings  have  descended 
to  me  as  a  precious  inheritance. 

Gentlemen:  The  chief  and  great  lesson  of  this  University  is  the  vital 
force  and  value  of  disinterested  service.  If  it  shall  be  asked  what  in- 
duced its  foundation,  what  has  erected  these  buildings,  equipped  them 
with  all  scientific  apparatus,  libraries,  and  other  endowments,  what  has 
brought  together  here  this  faculty  of  learned,  laborious,  honored,  and  be- 
loved professors  and  instructors,  there  can  be  but  one  answer — the  spirit 
of  disinterested  public  service  caused  it  all.  For  neither  wealth  nor  love 
of  wealth,  nor  fame,  nor  power  could  have  done  or  prompted  such  work 
as  has  been  done  here,  nor  produced  such  results  to  the  country  and  to 
mankind  as  by  the  blessing  of  God  have  been  produced  and  are  hereafter 
to  be  produced  by  this  noble  institution. 

Carry  the  lesson  with  you,  my  young  countrymen,  into  the  active 
careers  of  American  citizenship,  on  the  threshold  of  which  you  now 
stand,  and  remembering  all  that  unselfish  and  disinterested  public  spirit 
has  done  for  you  in  these  halls,  see  to  it  that  in  full  measure  you  make 
return  by  infusing  such  principles  into  the  government  and. laws  of  your 
country.  For  in  them  lies  the  best  hope  for  the  permanence  and  stability 
of  free  institutions. 


iSinder 

Gaylnrd  Bros..  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


M223913 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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